Man Man @ Kimmel Center, NYU 4/11/06
Man Man's band uniform is a nice, bright, clinically insane white on white. They have a string of lit up eyeballs draped from their keyboard. The Philadelphia collective's recent release Six Demon Bag is the sort of album you'd get if you took a crew of drunken pirates and weaned them on pop tunes, gypsy polka, and the demented, augmented interval passages of Mothers of Invention. You know, your typical band next door, trying to do that rock thing. Which made it all the more delicious to hit an NYU room the size of a high school auxiliary auditorium for a set of their rum-drenched waltzes and prog-funk freak outs.
In a forty minute Man Man set, you're gonna get one, maybe two breaks, and next to no banter. You have a Rhodes-playing lead man named Honus Honus ... at his disposal: a gravel-pit forethroat and a serious "mous-tache mous-tache mous-tache," as one of the tunes reminds us. He's your circus leader, whipping around coiled plastic tubes, all raspy voice and animated eyeball stares. Directly facing him, lining the stage front, is the spastic facial contortion of drummer Pow Pow. He's the jumpy sort, running across stage, springing onto his drum chair and back down to bash away in perfect time. You'll find him mid-groove, uncontrollably cracking up at the prospect of being handed a tiny, orange plastic gun. He'll shoot his men men with it between beats, and he'll still pulverize the twisted shuffle of tunes like "Black Mission Goggles" and "Push the Eagle's Stomach."
The rest of the gang lines up behind Honus and Pow, all facial hair, glasses and cartoonish, falsetto-voiced holler-backers. Banging on cans. Gypsy horns and headbands. And while this crew and their kazoos are busy filling out the sound space, Honus and Pow are leading the charge, facing each other, locking stares and laughing at their manic pop.
The band's lunacy had a group near stage cluster hugging, swaying to the swashbuckling shanties, petting strangers and mouthing every word. These kids were in ecstasy (or on it). Either way they were rolling, getting off on a night of frenetic theatrics, tight tunes and toy gun fun. And imagine, the NYU kids got to see this kick-ass set for a two dollar subsidy! Now that's a use of tuition a Man could get behind.
SETLIST
For the uninitiated, here's an MP3 of the demented waltz that kicked off an unforgettable evening.
Man Man - "Feathers" (MP3 Link Expired)
Posted at 2:40 PM in Concert, MP3
Tags: Man Man
I want your babies. I want your babies. I want your babies. I want your babies. I want your babies. Coathanger. Coathanger. Coathanger. Coathanger. Coathanger. The End
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this article is annoyingly written. behind the annoyingness, they sound amusing, i guess.
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Way to mention the fact that Gang Gang Dance headlined (and put on a great set).
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Oh man, I saw Gang Gang Dance at CMJ and couldn't stand it.
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"Banana Ghost" and "Skin Tension".
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thanks hyphen dude. corrected!
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spot on again. they get crazier and crazier the bigger the stage gets.
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awesome shots :)
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nice piece. how'd these guys escape the insane assylum? philly's starting to reinvent itself, right before our NYC eyes.
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hot damn, they sound like a good time! just as crazy as their music.
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Yeah this article is very poorly written. But Man Man are truely awesome.
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hmmm... this article has a style that may not appeal to some. However, if I were going to rag on someone else's writing I'd make sure I was TRULY spelling all of my words correctly.
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dude that setlist is totally wrong. that's just six demon bag's tracklisting. they played 10 lb moustache, against the peruvian monster, the fog or china, werewolf (on the hood), and zebra.. all from man with the blue turban with a face.
had you even heard the band before reviewing this show?
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the man in a blue turban with a face**
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I was worried based on that setlist. Really confused and worried.
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each of those songs were played! in the order of the cd too, but I think they went into older songs in the middle, sorta in one big jam. great recap by the way!
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nope, they scattered the old songs throughout the set, and didn't jam on any of the songs. man man doesn't jam jam.
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you gotta love the diehard fans that are all: "they actually played Ice Dogs in the key of Bb, not C#. you didnt mention it. it's important. really really important."
diehard fans, I salute you.
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Man, I love Man Man!
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Cool post. Wish I had gone.
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Here are some pictures from another recent concert: http://zombiesatemusic.blogspot.com/2006/03/man-man-andy-zipf-sxsw-showcase.html
Thought you guys might like to see these also.
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they put on an incredible show as always. the whole place was jumping and stomping along. more pics from the show here: http://indie-licious.blog.com/681598/
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I'm not sure how I've avoided having more than a couple tracks by these guys. That will soon change.
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They only play for 40 minutes? Lame.
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